Chapter 4: Being Watched

September 14th - 10:45am – Gearshift Train Station

This felt bizarre to Phineas, fulfilling Ferb's wish to get the Jewelled Butterflies from the Iron Blackbird sounded dangerous enough, but now there's a vampire and a cult involved. And now he and Isabella are teaming up with eight other kids from different towns to search for the Jewelled Butterflies, not just the Eds. Especially since all of them had somewhat different goals.

Ed, Edd n Eddy are trying to solve a mystery surrounding a package that was delivered to them forty years before Double D was born. Dib and Gaz are trying to bring down Diavoli Di Sangue. And Trixie was on the run from the same cult. And finally, Billy and Mandy were trying to get a magic scythe back from the Vampire, named Kasumi Iwamoto.

It didn't help that they were on the run from a monster in the woods beforehand, so Phineas' confidence had been shaken considerably, especially seeing Isabella breakdown in front of her, though it did also motivate him to try much harder, for both Ferb and Isabella, he only hoped that this won't get much worse than it already has, but he's not betting on it.

They were in the train station, all of them in the restaurant area having some fast food, due to the either not having any breakfast or very little food, plus their train would be arriving in fifteen minutes, so they had plenty of time to have some food while they wait.

Ed, Edd n Eddy sat with Dib on one table, Mandy sat with Gaz on a table far from them.

Phineas and Isabella took a table with Trixie and Billy, all of them besides Isabella had burgers and fries, Isabella had a taco. When getting their seats, Phineas still felt a bit untrustworthy to the Eds over them screwing with them during the forest incident, even if he did understand that they were trying their best and the monster could mimic voices, but he still felt like they were messing around, especially since they had the safety of the watchtower. He knew to be a team player, but for now, he needs a bit more time.

That being said, when he and Isabella sat with Billy and Trixie, Billy began to talk about more of his strange supernatural-like shenanigans, taking a lot more interest. "So, this scythe you're looking for really is magic?" asked Phineas.

"Oh yeah." Said Billy. "It's actually the Grim Reapers!"

"Wait! As in, it's time for you to die, Grim Reaper?" asked Isabella now looking concerned. Phineas noticed her expression, and it dawned on him just how wild this was.

Billy began talking again. "Yeah, when me and Mandy were kids, the Grim Reaper came to collect the soul of my hamster, but we challenged him to a game of limbo, he almost won, but we did in the end, and now he's our best friend forever."

"Do you… still have this hamster?" asked Phineas.

Billy sighed a bit. "Nah, ended up dying anyway, choked on a tennis ball that somehow got in his cage. I do miss Mr Snuggles." Billy then went right back to cheery. "But I get to visit him once a month, Grim takes me to the afterlife every now and then to check up on him."

Phineas and Isabella felt extremely baffled, the very force of life and death just LIVES with these two weird kids, and they can visit the afterlife whenever they want.

"I wonder if I could see my biological dad when this is over?" asked Phineas looking to Isabella.

"Mom won't wanna see my dad." Said Isabella rolling her eyes slightly. As much as she missed her dad, she knew her mother didn't, they hardly got along. She soon noticed Trixie eating quietly, and decided she wanted to know more about her. "So, Trixie." Trixie jumped a bit and turned to her "What did you do back home, Dimmsdale was it?"

Trixie looked a bit startled, but it quickly faded. "Oh, um… just rich girl stuff really, school life, go to the mall every day, get all sorts of expensive jewellery and clothes. And then come home to my many butlers and maids and do rich girl stuff at home."

"Really? You don't dress like one." Said Billy, tilting his head to the side.

"Oh this? Well, I am being chased by a blood-thirsty cult, they're looking for a fabulously rich and wealthy girl, not a cheap-looking tomboy."

Billy nods. "Oh yeah, Ravioli de Salmon." Phineas and Isabella began chuckling a bit.

"It's Diavoli Di Sangue. Its Italian for Blood Devils." Said Trixie, feeling amused.

Phineas decided to include himself in this, recalling what Dexter mentioned about them. "We know that they were founded fifty years ago, and that they go for the heart and neck, and there's supposedly thousands of them in hiding. Is there anything else you know about them?"

"Aside from that all of them that have been killed are seventeen or older, not much." Trixie then directs herself to Dib, getting them to look. "Dib has a ton of research notes on them, that's where I got my info from before I met you lot."

"How long have you known Dib and his sister?" asked Isabella.

"Only a few days, we just so happen to bump into each other on the same cruise, he and Gaz stowed away so I paid for their tickets."

"Well…" Phineas soon looked over to the table that the Eds and Dib were on, Trixie, Isabella and Billy looked to see as well. "Hopefully Dib will be more reliable than the Eds." He mumbled with a ton of spite in his tone. Still feeling bitter over it.

Isabella placed her hand on his shoulder. "I know Phineas, but they really did do their best."

Phineas seeing Isabella's concerned look in her eyes made him feel guilty over what he said. "I know." He placed his hand on his head in frustration. "It's just that…" he soon sighed as he finished his drink, not wanting to discuss this. He then looked up at the clock. "Oh, we better get going now."

Phineas made his way to Dib and the Eds table, and Isabella made her way to Mandy and Gaz's table, both to let them know the trains here. While Trixie went ahead, and Billy waited for Mandy.

"Train's here." Phineas said to Dib and the Eds, with them finishing their food before moving with him. He looked to see Isabella with Mandy and Gaz catching up to him, so he made his way to the platform and see the train doors open; one by one they enter the train.

They all stay in one carriage, Phineas and Isabella share a seat with a table, with Billy and Mandy taking the opposite end of said table. Trixie takes a seat on the opposite side of them, with Eddy about to sit next to her but Dib rushed to that seat first, so he sat at another table opposite to Ed and Double D. Gaz noticed she couldn't sit with her brother, so she sat on the seat behind them. Soon the train began to leave the station, with Phineas hoping this will go well for all of them.

September 14th - 11:23am – Train, between Tech Square and Townsville.

As the train zoomed across the tracks, Billy had shown to be quite the chatterbox, which definitely helped pass the time, Mandy however was quite silent, she was shown to be somewhat anti-social when the first met, given that she and Billy seemed like complete opposites with no similarities between them, it was a wonder why they were friends. Though the term, Opposites Attract seemed viable here.

Phineas, Isabella and Billy were sharing stories of their past events, Mandy chimed in on occasion to correct anything Billy got wrong.

Billy brought up how they've had a lot of horrifying sounding events ever since they became friends with the Grim Reaper. And several other supernatural encounters, such as a being named Nergal, who lived in the centre of the earth and married Billy's aunt. And the time Billy used Evil Powder to make brownies and it started a zombie uprising, then there was Jeff, a colossal spider whom Billy hatched and he thinks is his father, but his arachnophobia makes it impossible for them to bond, and there was the time Billy used static electricity on the Grim Reaper's scythe and got sent to Asgard, and almost summoned an apocalypse by using the phone of Cthulhu, the very same beast from Lovecraftian Tales. And while it seemed like Billy was the sole reason for most of these events, Mandy had some herself, like being tricked into opening Pandora's box, and the time when Grim became a teacher and sent all the kids to the Detention Dimension.

Phineas and Isabella in turn also mentioned quite a few of their adventures and the many things they've built over the years, which Billy had a very excited look to him, while Mandy did have minor looks of interest that went as quickly as a blink.

"Wow, sounds like you've both been through a lot." Said Phineas, still processing all the horrific events.

"Yeah, I can't recall anything as scary as what you've been through." Said Isabella. In truth, she could, but didn't want to be reminded of the monster in the woods.

"Oh yeah! We're pros when dealing with monsters and ghosts." Said Billy sounding a bit smug.

"Except ninety-nine percent of the time, I'm saving your dumbass from the chaos you've caused." Said Mandy as she leaned back with her hands behind her head, given that most of the stories Billy mentioned was about him causing it, her response made sense.

"Well, uh... t-that's not the point." Said Billy sounding both annoyed and sheepish.

Mandy leaned back up to look directly at him. "That's EXACTLY the point! Most of the time it's you who causes them, I'll give you slack on the times you couldn't have known, but I could count those moments on one hand."

Billy chuckles as he leans on the table looking at her. "Boy, you must have a lot of fingers on one hand!"

Mandy responds by bonking him on the head, making his head hit the table. "Shut it you idiot!"

Billy chuckles again as he lifts his head up. "Ah! You resorted to violence, that means I win!" And he immediately responds by getting up and running. With Mandy immediately giving chase.

"Not against me you don't!"

Phineas and Isabella looked over to where Mandy was chasing Billy, and the two chuckled to each other. "You know what they say, Opposites Attract." Said Isabella.

"They sure do. Did they mention being brother and sister?"

"Don't think so. But they definitely act like a pair of siblings. Now that I think about it, did you and Ferb ever have bickering moments or Sibling Rivalry as it's called?"

"No, we were good as gold, I guess we just bounced off each other so much that we hardly have any moments like that."

Soon enough, they notice Billy running back in a panic, as he ran past their table, Isabella noticed that as Billy was about to pass the Eds seat, Eddy shot his foot out tripping Billy over, Mandy then took this opportunity to dive on top of Billy and beat him up. The two were rolling all over the place, picking up dust as they threw all sorts of punches, kicks and slaps. Not paying attention to anyone around them

"ENOUGH!"

Billy and Mandy jumped at the sound of the member of staff looking down at them as he just arrived.

"Kids! This is a train for the public, not a damn playground! Now get back to your seats or I'll have to kick you off at the next stop!"

As the staff member walked off, Billy and Mandy stood up, patted themselves and sat back at their seats with Phineas and Isabella, who tried to hide that they thought it was funny, but Mandy's glare was evident that they weren't doing a good job.

"We're teenagers. Not kids." Grumbled Billy.

Mandy just sighed, keeping her usual scowl, but there was a hint of a blush on her cheeks, likely embarrassed over this. Phineas and Isabella decided to just stay quiet until Billy restarts the conversation.

September 14th - 12:00am – Townsville Train Station

The train finally arrived at Townsville, Phineas and Isabella immediately got out of their seats and made their way to the door, with the others following in suit. As they left the train, they were unfortunately caught in a very large a crowd as several more people began leaving the train and entering it, suddenly feeling pushed back and forth.

"Oh boy!" muttered Phineas.

"Move it!" Shouted Mandy.

Phineas struggled to get through, also noticing Isabella being pushed away from him, so he quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to him, soon they both notice Ed was walking forward normally, pushing everyone out of his way, and that the others were behind Ed, letting him shield them. The two look at each other, nod and immediately get behind Ed as well.

As the crowd cleared, they moved out from behind Ed along with the others, Isabella fixed her hair while Phineas checked his backpack, before looking around. "Everyone here?"

"I think…" Mandy looked around again, trying to take a mental note of everyone's faces. "Wait, we're missing three." They realised that Billy, Double D and Dib are not here. Phineas, Isabella and the others looked back to see the crowd clear, and they saw Billy on the floor with footprints on him, and a flattened pink nose. "Idiot." Mandy mumbled as she walked up to him and helped him up.

"Wow." Billy responded as he shook his head slightly. "Some people never clean their shoes; one had a big wad of gum on it." He coughs up the large piece of gum with a triumphant smile. "His loss is my gain."

Isabella quietly gagged at what Billy said, with Phineas taking a slight chuckle at her.

Mandy simply smacks the gum out of his hand and looks around. "So where are Dib and Double D?"

"Uhh… Found them!" Trixie said sounding worried as she pointed to the departing train, seeing Dib and Double D were pushed back inside the train as they looked out to them panicking.

"Oh shoot! What do we do!?" asked Phineas.

Before anyone could say anything, Eddy's phone began to ring, he takes it out, see's it's Double D calling and answers on speaker. "Nice going Sock-Ed!"

"I know, I'm sorry. Look, we're gonna try and get the train back, just go on without us. We'll keep you posted."

"Got it but hurry up."

Dib's voice was soon heard. "Tell Gaz to stay with Trixie, I know neither of them have a phone but I'd rather she stayed with her."

"Whatever." Said Gaz.

"Meet you soon." Eddy ends the call and faces the others, "We're just gonna have to go without them, they'll get the next train back."

"Hope they'll be alright." Said Isabella.

"Double D will be fine; wouldn't be the first time he's screwed up like this. Dib I dunno."

"He's an idiot but he finds his way out of any mess." Said Gaz, who then went back to her Game-Slave and stands a little closer to Trixie.

"Alright, whatever." Mandy spoke up, deciding to take charge of this. "Let's just find this stupid Butterfly and get back to Dexter."

She leaves the station with the others, and they look out to see the City of Townsville, it looked as simple as any other city, but the observatory on top of a volcano in the distance was the most eye catching. Phineas wondered how long it took to build, and wondered if he could build anything like that in the future if needed.

Mandy then turned to the others. "Alright, let's split up and search this city."

"This whole city!?" Exclaimed Eddy. "How are we supposed to find a tiny gem in this place!?"

"Don't know, don't care, we just have to find it before anyone else does."

Phineas shrugged. "Guess Isabella and I will team up." Isabella looked neutral, but inside she felt gleeful.

Eddy looked over to Trixie and Gaz, and he immediately walks over to them. "How's about we team up, don't worry, I'll make sure you're safe." He said to Trixie specifically, who gave a look of disinterest.

Just as Eddy was about to grab Trixie's hand, Ed suddenly jumped in and hugged both of them, crushing them both in the process. Just missing Gaz who didn't pay attention to them at all. "YAY! WE'RE A TEAM!"

"ED! GET OFF!" Eddy grunted.

Trixie wheezes, unable to speak.

Mandy sighed and looked over to Billy. "You're with me, come on. Report back here in a few hours."

The gang split into three and made their way around Townsville. Billy and Mandy, Ed, Eddy, Trixie and Gaz, and Phineas and Isabella. As they split, Isabella looked to Phineas, despite enjoying being alone with him, she still remembered their moment in the forest, she can only hope she'll remain useful to him and not freeze when it's important.

With that being said, she turned back to the train station, knowing Dib is gone; despite barely knowing each other, he had something to him that made her really like him, his handsome look, dashing motif, she just felt fuzzy seeing him for the first time, and it felt like a shame to not see him, but eventually, she shook her head, she needed to focus.

September 14th - 12:26pm – The City of Townsville

The town was beautiful, clean and vibrant, having several unique looking buildings, the people seemed very friendly, and some of the building walls had maps of the town so it was difficult to get lost.

Phineas and Isabella continued to walk through the town, after the previous night of utter hell, this felt pleasant, Isabella especially, as recently, even the thought of trees has made her uncomfortable. But she didn't speak up about it, she was likely still shaken from the horrors, so she tried to stay focused on the mission.

Soon however, she notices a shop with jewels in it. It had a sign called Bobbins Brothers Jewellery Store. "Hey Phineas. Look."

Phineas looked to the shop. "Oh, good idea. A Jewelled Butterfly might be in there."

Before they could do anything else, Isabella's phone began to ring, she took her phone out and saw it was Mandy ringing her, so she quickly answered. "Hey Mandy, anything?"

"Not yet." Said Mandy. "But I wanna ask. That Iron Blackbird blackmailed your friend to stealing one of those butterflies, right? Where did he steal it from?"

"Oh, Ferb stole it from a museum." She looked to Phineas, then back to her phone.

"Museum, huh? Alright. Billy and I are gonna see if this town has one and check it out."

"Gotcha, we're gonna try a jewellery shop. Hope you find something."

"Ditto." Mandy then hung up.

Isabella looked at her phone slightly confused, usually expecting a 'bye' before someone hangs up, then again, Mandy has shown to be quite rude so far. She just ignores it and turns to Phineas. "Billy and Mandy are gonna look for a museum."

Phineas nods. "Good idea." He then turns back to the jewellery shop. "Anyway, we better check out this shop now."

The two walk in and are met with a beautiful blue series of rooms with jewellery of all kinds, necklaces, earrings, rings, even chains and bracelets, all of them in glass cases on tables out in display. Isabella felt fascinated, she wasn't super into accessorising, but she did like the looks of them, and she thought about maybe replacing her earrings. But she should focus on the mission first.

She and Phineas looked around, but there was a bit of disappointment, as they looked around every room, there weren't a single jewel that looked like an ornament, let alone a butterfly. The two eventually meet back up with each other and shrug simultaneously.

"Need any help children?"

Phineas and Isabella turned to see a man in a suit approach them. "Oh um…" Isabella was unsure at first but spoke up. "We were actually looking for jewels that resemble animals, like they were carved into them?"

The man raised an eyebrow, before responding. "I'm sorry, but we have nothing of the sort, you may be better off checking up on any arts and craft shops."

"Do you know any around here?" asked Phineas.

"I'm afraid not. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help."

Isabella nods. "No, that's fine. Thank you for trying." She then signals Phineas to follow and the two leave.

"Come again, any time." Said the man.

As the two left and continued to walk down the street, Phineas let out a quiet huff. "Well, that could've gone better."

"True. At least we tried."

"Yeah." Phineas crossed his arms. "Let's see… maybe we need a different angle."

"Like thirty-five degrees?" she said tipping her head to that angle.

Phineas chuckled a bit at her joke. "No. But good joke. But given that there's only seventeen of them and they were in puzzle boxes, they may have historical references."

"You mean, if we look through history books in the local library, we might find something?"

"Yep."

"Good idea, let's go."

The two continue their walk and try to look for a wall map to find the closest library, but as they do so. Isabella feels a strange chill down her spine, as if someone's watching her, she turned to look behind her, and found no one that was looking directly at them, but she still felt that chill, and hoped it was just her being paranoid.

September 14th - 12:35pm – The City of Townsville, Townsville Library

After a bit of a walk, they found the Library, a large stone building with a massive door, four columns, two on each side of the door, and the word 'Library' was carved at the top in giant letters. They walked inside and looked around, seeing hundreds upon hundreds of books, they both felt a bit intimidated, realising that they would probably have to look through every last book if they can't find anything in the history section, so they agreed to search the history sections only and leave, if they can't find anything, they should let the others know and do a massive group search.

They spent twenty minutes reading the books in the history section, they skimmed through the pages, trying to search for keywords like Butterfly, Puzzle, Jewel, etc. Any book they finished, they placed on a pile.

As Isabella looked through the pages, she was struggling to find anything, in addition, she felt a bit distracted, that feeling of being watched persisted, she kept looking around, but there was literally no one about. It was empty aside from the one and only staff member, but she was at the desk and completely out of sight. She just gave a quiet sigh before resuming her book.

"Hey, Isabella." Phineas whispered, she turned to him, and he gestured to his book, it was a book on historical poets from different regions of Europe.

"Anything?" she whispered.

"Look."

Phineas shown her the page he was on and it shown a black and white photo of a man who looked to be in his late forties, early fifties, wore a black coat, a cloth cap and had a small bushy moustache, Isabella wasn't sure at first, but soon noticed that the man had a butterfly pin on his coat, and while it was difficult to make it out exactly, due to the quality of the photo, but the butterfly's wings looked like they were shaped like a leaf, long antennas, and the most important factor, it looked like it was made of a gemstone.

"Bingo." Whispered Isabella. She read it further and saw the man's name. "Mehmed Nâzım Ran… commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet."

Phineas continued. "He's a Turkish Poet born in 1902and died in 1963. He was also a novelist, playwriter, screenwriter, director and memoirist. He's been described as a romantic communist and a romantic revolutionary, looks like he was arrested a lot for his political beliefs and spent most of his adult life in prison."

"Geez… sounds rough." Whispered Isabella. "But did he still have the Butterfly?"

Phineas continued to flick through the pages. "I think it right… right… here."

The two looked at more photos of him, and there was a photo of him, but he didn't have the Butterfly on him anymore. Phineas reads quietly to Isabella.

"On April 8th, 1950, Nâzım began a hunger strike to protest the Turkish Parliament's failure to include an amnesty law in its agenda before it closed for the upcoming general election. He was then transferred from the prison in Bursa, first to the infirmary of Sultanahmet Jail, in Istanbul, and later to Paşakapısı Prison."

Phineas then pointed to the photo's information written below. "And this photo was taken of him as he was leaving the Sultanahmet Jail. And all the other photos before it shows him with it."

"Then it means that he left the Jewelled Butterfly behind in that jail." Isabella continued. She then took her phone out. "Lemme take pictures."

"Sure." He flipped through to the important pages and let Isabella take roughly ten photos.

"Perfect, we may not have found the one in Townsville, but we found another one."

"Yeah, we have our next destination. That's just as good."

Isabella then looked around, before turning back to him. "We better leave now, after we put the books back."

Phineas looks at the pile of books they left lying on the floor. "Oh yeah. I almost forgot."

It took a few minutes, but the two cleaned up their mess easily and made their way out, as they did, Isabella still felt that feeling of being watched, but the only thing she saw was the staff member, who was reading a book of her own, she didn't notice them coming in or out. Eventually, that feeling passed as they left the library, she just hoped that it was just her paranoia getting the better of her, especially since anyone could be a key member of that cult Dib and Trixie mentioned.

As the two got a few blocks down, Isabella spoke up again. "So where to, now?"

Phineas pondered for a moment. "I'm not sure, we have info on one Jewelled Butterfly, but not the one we're searching for. Billy and Mandy are checking the museum…"

Isabella thought for a moment, then realise something. "Oh wait… there is something we could do."

"Yeah?"

"You still got that cheque Officer Bateman gave us?"

"Oh yeah. We should probably cash it in."

"Yeah, even if Trixie is super rich, it's not fair on her to pay for everything."

"Yeah. Let's go cash it in." They saw that a bank was not far from them actually, Phineas dug into his bag and took out the Cheque for a thousand dollars. "Hope it works here."

But as Phineas took a step forward, Isabella saw something teal coloured out of the corner of her eye, before she could fully process what it was, this teal-coloured blue shot past Phineas bumping him to the ground.

"Oops! Pardon me, suckers!"

"Yeah! Suckers!"

Isabella processed what she saw and felt baffled. It looked like three three-foot tall slimy-germ-like critters wearing fedoras, the tallest one had a brown one, the middle-sized one had a grey one, and the smallest one had a black one.

Phineas pushed himself up and looked at the three germ-creatures running away and saw that they had a cheque stuck onto one of them. He looks at his own hand and realised that they swiped it out of his hand.

"Oh crud!"

"What the heck are those things?" asked Isabella.

"I dunno, but we gotta get it back."

Isabella nodded and the two gave chase.

September 14th - 1:17pm – The City of Townsville, Roxie Theatre.

They had previously lost them, but they got directions from the locals to where they were running, and some of them described them as the Amoeba Boys, a group of gigantic amoeba people who commit very minor crimes, from jaywalking, to littering, Isabella suspected that they were the ones following them, probably waiting to rob them. That was all they learned as they gave chase, and thankfully, one individual mentioned that their homebase was the Roxie Theatre, a place long since abandoned.

And abandoned it was, as it and the street itself were devoid of people, there was litter and graffiti everywhere, and the theatre itself had several broken walls and windows, and looked to have been struck by demolition equipment but stopped before it really started.

Phineas and Isabella found a nearby hole in the wall and peered through, and there they saw a large open area, it looked like it was supposed to have several seats to watch the stage at the far end, but were all removed, now there were just platforms and stairs, and right at the stage itself were the Amoeba Boys, though it was pretty far, they were visible.

Isabella was unsure about fighting any villains, but these guys seemed like cakewalks compared to whatever that forest monster was, and given the public opinion on these guys, chances are they could take them if they're careful.

Phineas dug into his backpack and took out his Baseball Launcher but realised that the baseball was gone. "Darn. I forgot that thing tore it apart."

Isabella thought for a moment, but then remembered something. "Wait, didn't you bring Ferb's pole?"

Phineas blinked twice. "Oh yeah." He put his Baseball Launcher away and took out Ferb's metal pole, which was considerably small, until Phineas pressed a button, and it extended to just a foot taller than him. He then turned to Isabella. "Wait, what about you?"

Isabella thought again, she recalled that Phineas still has that knife Ferb used to stab the Iron Blackbird, but she really didn't want to use a weapon that was more intended to kill, plus if she stains the knife, it'll ruin the Iron Blackbird's blood they need for Phineas' tracking device. "I'll find something, I'm a Fireside Girl after all."

Phineas nods. "Alright, but let me take the front, just in case."

Isabella nods and the two slowly start to walk in through the hole, and carefully make their way downstairs towards the stage, there the two could see the Amoeba Boys more clearly, and it looked like they had the cheque on the table in between the three. What they were talking about became clearer.

"So how are we gonna split this, Bossman?" asked the smaller one in the black fedora.

"I don't know Junior." Said the one in the grey fedora, apparently named Bossman. "It was easier with the orange."

"Maybe we need to check for something? Isn't that why they're called Cheques?" asked the slim one.

"Shaddup Slim." Said Bossman.

"Yeah, shaddup." Said Junior.

Phineas and Isabella stopped in their tracks listening to this, being incredibly baffled by their talk. "Do they not know how cheques work?" Phineas whispered. The Amoeba Boys jumped and turned to them. Phineas silently kicking himself for exposing themselves.

"Hey! You're the kids we stole from!" said Bossman.

"Yes, and we'd like that cheque back." Said Isabella, crossing her arms and giving an authoritarian tone.

"No way! We stole it fair and square!"

"Yeah! Fair and square!" said Junior.

Phineas soon gave out a sigh. "Do you even know how cheques work?"

The Amoeba Boys looked at each other confused, before turning back to them. "Um…" Bossman mumbled.

"Look. We don't need that much money. So, how's about we split the money?" said Phineas.

"Split it? How?" asked Slim.

"Well, we'll need to take it to a bank to split it." Said Isabella, she was a bit unsure about it, but she also didn't want anything to escalate. "Now come on, it'll be two hundred for the five of us."

The three look at each other for a moment confused, Isabella could tell that they weren't used to being offered civil responses to their crimes.

"Well, we do still get the money we stole." Said Junior. "Well, most of it anyway."

Bossman shrugs. "I guess… but…" He then shakes his head. "I mean NO!" He turned to the other two. "We're the Amoeba Boys! We don't do deals or charity! We're mobsters! Criminals! We steal what we want!" He then turned to Phineas and Isabella. "And you two rugrats ain't getting this cheque back!"

"YEAH!" Both Slim and Junior said in unison.

Phineas and Isabella looked at each other, shrugged and looked back at them. "Guess we're gonna have to fight you for it." Phineas said, showing off his metal pole.

"Ha! That silly fishing stick won't do a thing to us!" said Bossman.

Isabella then noticed a broom just by her feet and picks it up in a threatening way. "How about this!?"

The Amoeba Boys gasp in shock. "Look out! She's got a broom!" the three suddenly split up and ran away. With Phineas and Isabella giving chase to Bossman since he had the cheque in his hand.

It was quite comical, seeing Phineas and Isabella chasing Bossman running around in circles, despite them going against actual criminals, the two were actually enjoying themselves. Soon, Bossman quickly passed the cheque to Junior who ran in a different direction, so the two quickly changed their target to Junior, leaving Bossman alone. They chased Junior for a little while until he quickly passed it off to Slim and they chased him. All while Bossman and Junior continued to run around in circles despite not being chased.

Soon, the two cornered Slim, Phineas and Isabella slowly approached him, but then Slim quickly folded the cheque into a paper airplane and thrown it over them and it flew over. So, the two immediately left Slim alone and chased it as it flew. Bossman caught it and ran off with them giving chase, but then Bossman threw the paper plane again and they chased it again. Junior caught it and ran off again.

The chase continued with them throwing the paper plane to each other with Phineas and Isabella continuing to chase it around, still having fun while doing it. There was a point however where Phineas did catch the paper plane and threw it again but realised what he did and smacked his forehead feeling very annoyed with himself, with Isabella giving him a gentle bonk on the back of the head with the broom, though she was more amused than annoyed.

They started the chase again, it was passed around so many times that eventually, Bossman had it, and he was ready to throw it again. Isabella was right behind him and readying herself to swing the broom at him. Just as Bossman threw it, Isabella gave him a heavy swing that sent him flying. But Isabella noticed where she sent him flying towards. A closed metal coffin.

Bossman smacked into it making a loud gonging sound that made everyone stop, Phineas, Slim and Junior – holding the cheque – looked over to what happened.

Isabella felt concerned seeing this strange metal coffin, worrying she may have disturbed the dead, but questioned what that was even doing here. Bossman rubbed his head in pain but realised what he hit and ran away from it looking terrified. As he did, the metal coffin suddenly shook.

"Uh oh…" muttered Slim, as Bossman ran beside him, all of them taking several steps behind Phineas and Isabella, whom she quickly made her way to Phineas once the metal coffin shook.

The coffin shook again. Phineas turned to the Amoeba Boys feeling very worried. "W-What the heck is that!?"

"A-Abracadaver!" said Junior.

"What!? Who!?" asked Isabella.

The coffin shook again, and it was suddenly opening, exposing a trail of smoke, and the walls of the interior of the coffin had spikes with dried blood stained on them. It looked less like a coffin and more like a demented torture device.

But as the smoke cleared, a tall lanky person began to reveal himself. To their shock and horror, this man had rotting blueish skin and bloodied red eyes, he had rotting teeth and greyish black withered hair poking out of his torn and weathered top hat, his thin moustache and goatee had the same condition as his hair. In addition to his top hat, he had a black tuxedo on that had the exact same condition as his hat. It was some kind of zombie magician that appeared before them.

Phineas and Isabella both felt terrified, after just recovering from the monster in the woods, now they were face to face with an actual zombie. "Y-You've gotta be kidding me!" said Isabella.

"Reeeveeenge!" said the zombie supposedly named Abracadaver as he began to walk towards them slowly.

Isabella gave a loud shriek as she hid behind Phineas who immediately moved his metal pole forward, trying to threaten him. "G-Get back!" shouted Phineas.

Abracadaver raised his hand and thrusts it forward, zapping a white lighting towards them, Phineas and Isabella, panicked, he threw his metal pole to the lightning and jumped back with Isabella. The lightning struck the metal pole and in an instant, the pole transformed into a snake being twice the length of the pole. The snake suddenly lunged at them.

Phineas immediately shoved Isabella out of the way and the snake tackled Phineas to the ground, coiling around him. Isabella fell to the ground and saw Phineas struggling to get the snake off him but seeing both this large snake and the rotting zombie approaching him, Isabella tried to help, but her body was frozen with fear again.

'No! NO! NOT AGAIN!' Isabella screamed in her head, becoming frozen with fear again, she was growing to hate herself even more, she wants to help Phineas, but twice now, she's fallen helpless to her own fears, she tried desperately to move her body, to force it forward, but she couldn't, she was stuck.

Just as Abracadaver got close enough to the struggling Phineas, there was a sudden flash of red light, Isabella thought the zombie had casted another spell, but he was actually thrown back a bit by the flash, and to her and everyone else's shock, someone had appeared in between Abracadaver and Phineas. It was a teen girl.

This girl had long reddish hair accompanied with a large red bow, had bright red eyes, and wore a red almost-sailor-like uniform, but this girl had not only a faint red glow, but she was also floating in the air. This girl then suddenly looked behind her to see Phineas with the snake on him, and she immediately grabbed it by the neck and yanked it off of him with ease and threw it away.

"B-Blossom!" called Bossman.

Phineas and Isabella turned to the Amoeba Boys, then back to this girl supposedly named Blossom who faced Abracadaver. She turned to the Amoeba Boys with a smug look. "Oh, hey Amoeba Boys. I'll kick your asses later, kay?"

She turned back around to face Abracadaver who immediately shot a white lightning bolt from his hands at her, but she immediately disappeared in a flash of red light avoiding the lighting. And Blossom immediately reappeared behind Abracadaver, who turned to her confused, then shot another one at her, which she disappeared again appearing to his left.

Abracadaver looked, then dug into his coat and pulled out a clock on a string with a ring at the end. But Blossom immediately threw a kick at the clock sending it flying. Then she threw a punch into Abracadaver's face, teleported behind him and threw a kick into his back, teleported again throwing an elbow into his stomach. She teleported and struck Abracadaver in several places before making one last kick into his chest sending him flying back into the metal coffin and it slammed shut immediately. Then Blossom took a deep breath and to their surprise, she unleashed a gigantic mist of ice that froze the ground, walls and encased the entire metal coffin in a chunk of ice.

Blossom then crossed her arms looking smug. "Shows over, Abracadaver!"

Phineas and Isabella slowly got up feeling shocked over this. "Um, t-thank you." Said Isabella, who then noticed that the snake had changed back into the metal pole.

Blossom turns to them with a genuine smile. "No problem. But you better get out of here. I'll take it from here."

Phineas and Isabella nod and immediately run for it, forgetting the cheque. Phineas grabs his metal pole and presses the button to shrink it down. Isabella soon noticed the clock on the string Blossom kicked away, so she immediately grabbed it and placed it in her backpack. As they left the theatre, they heard the distinct sound of the Amoeba Boys being beaten up by that girl.

September 14th – 1:43pm – Townsville

We find Phineas and Isabella in a quieter part of town, both of them leaned against a wall, catching their breaths, Isabella felt immense shame, she wanted to help Phineas, yet she froze with fear twice. That snake could've killed Phineas, and who knows what else that Zombie could've done, she tried to hold back her tears, she looked over to Phineas who just finished catching his breath, she expected him to be ashamed of her, or worry.

But to her shock, she started chuckling. "Um… Phineas?" Isabella asked feeling really concerned.

Phineas soon stopped chuckling as he let out a quiet sigh. "I… I don't know why I found that funny. T-The tonal whiplash from a funny chase to a scary zombie…"

Isabella presumed it was some sort of coping mechanism, she recalled that some people end up laughing after going through some really scary events, like a coping mechanism or adrenaline, but given that Phineas didn't laugh after the monster in the forest incident, it could also be that he wasn't as scared and found it more exhilarating.

Isabella soon sighed and looked over to him eye to eye. "Phineas… I… I froze again… I'm so sorry."

Phineas then placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's alright. A zombie magician wasn't exactly on our bingo card. I'm just glad we got out of that in one piece." He then took out the shrunken metal pole and looked at it. "Still, I can't believe it turned into a snake, Ferb's probably not gonna…" He soon lost his smile. "Oh… yeah."

Isabella saw his expression, she was feeling guilty over not being helpful to Phineas, but at the same time, he too froze in fear when the Iron Blackbird, so in a way, he must understand how she feels and is being more sympathetic. Yet at the same time, Phineas seemed to be handling it a lot more than her yet seeing him look guilty as he looked at the metal pole, she had to say something.

"We've had it rough for a bit, why don't we take a short break, get a soda or something. You know…"

Phineas let out a sigh as he put the metal pole back in his backpack. "S-Sure, I could use a drink."

The two walked for a moment and eventually find an off-license shop, usually having snacks, drinks, cigarettes, alcohol and newspapers, and sometimes various packages with foreign names on them. Isabella buys two glass bottles of Coca Cola and the two stand outside of the shop having their drinks. As Isabella looked at Phineas finishing a small gulp of his drink, there looked to have been a small ease of tension in his expression, but it was still persistent, she knew it wasn't going to be easy to relieve his tension over this, but she also knew she had to try without compromising the mission. With this, she decided to look around to find anything of use, she wanted to remain useful to him, and while that info on the Jewelled Butterfly in Turkey is handy, it's not immediate.

It wasn't long she noticed a series of old newspapers, so she decided to read the front pages, just to find something, one had a train being destroyed by Diavoli Di Sangue, a murder in the Dimmsdale Mall, by another member of Diavoli Di Sangue, a man named Simon Mervaradi was killed in a time machine event from Dark Labs, also by Diavoli Di Sangue. This cult has been running more rampant, and she wondered if anyone was nearby that worked for them. Soon there was one that got her attention. Next to those newspapers was a conspiracy newspaper, and it had an interesting title to it.

"Morbucks Industry in Debt." She muttered.

She and Phineas look at the title intently. "Morbucks? That's the trading industry here, I think. Why do they think it's in debt?"

Isabella wondered for a moment, it was a stretch, but given how mysterious these Jewelled Butterflies are, something written by conspiracy theorists might have more leads. Plus, after what she went through, she didn't really feel like going anywhere else that might be dangerous.

She took the newspaper, went into the shop, and paid for it, then ran back. "Let's head back to the train station to read it."

Phineas nods. "Good idea, we can wait for Double D and Dib too."

September 14th - 2:00pm – Townsville Train Station

The two finally made their way back to the train station, the two felt a lot calmer now that they finished their drinks and made it to a nearby bench, but as they did, to their relief, they saw Double D and Dib making their way out of the train station, both of them having extremely fed up looks to them.

The moment Dib was in Isabella's sights, she felt that fuzziness again, seeing him like this, it felt like she wanted to help him, but she just shook her head, trying to focus. "You're here!"

Double D and Dib waved with unenthused motion. "So… so many coins…" Dib sighed.

"We had to dance for coins to buy tickets." Said Double D.

"Wow, that's rough." Said Phineas.

"Have you managed to find anything in our absence?"

Isabella responded. "We think we have. We split up to search for clues. Phineas and I found out that there might be a Jewelled Butterfly in Turkey."

"Seriously!?" asked Dib. "Great work."

Isabella felt a bit flustered by Dib's compliment but regained her focus. "We also got a conspiracy newspaper, we haven't read it yet, but it might hold some info."

Double D rubbed his chin a bit. "Well, it is indeed a stretch, but if we have no other leads, it's worth a try. At worst, Ed can probably use it as inspiration for his drawings."

Phineas nods as he sits down on the bench, Isabella sits next to him and opens the conspiracy newspaper, with Double D and Dib standing behind them to look over.

The conspiracy newspaper had what one would expect. Earth being flat, moon landing being fake, Bigfoot owning Hollywood, horse jockeys actually being leprechauns. But eventually they flicked over to what the front page was referring to, Morbucks in Debt.

As they continued to read this conspiracy, Isabella turned to a specific page, and to their surprise, it shown a rich looking fat man with an orange moustache, next to him was a young girl with orange hair in two baubles, but in the man's hand, is a jewelled butterfly.

The butterfly was pure white with black straight lines going around the wings, the photo itself looked to be quite old itself.

"Bingo." Said Isabella.

"Anything?" asked a familiar voice, they looked to see it was Mandy.

"We think so." Said Phineas, but soon looks shocked to see them as they are, Mandy was now wearing a dark pink cap and a pair of sunglasses, but both she and Billy looked beaten and bruised. "What happened to you!?"

"We had a run in with a crazy hair-raising chick." Said Billy.

As he said that, Ed, Eddy, Gaz and Trixie arrived not long later. Although they all looked a bit messed up with their bruises, Gaz had the least, however, but Trixie didn't have a scratch on her.

"You too, huh?" asked Eddy.

"Ed! Eddy! Are you alright!?" asked Double D as he walked up to them in a panic.

"Yup! We had worse!" said Ed.

"We got jumped by some green skinned guys." Said Eddy. Soon Phineas and Isabella notice Dib approaching Gaz with a concerned look, mumbling something as he examined her bruises, but Gaz slaps his hands away.

Mandy then shrugged a bit. "So did you find anything besides trouble?"

Eddy puffed out his chest slightly. "I sure as hell did."

"Excellent, glad you could do so much without our help." Said Double D, but soon looked back at Eddy and Ed's bruises.

"Relax Sock-Head, like Ed said, we've been through a lot worse." Said Eddy

"Yeah, wish we got to you sooner though, it was a pain to get the money to afford a train ticket." Said Dib, he looked at Gaz's bruises again, but then faced the gang. "Had to dance for coins."

"A loooot of coins." Double D added with a fed-up tone to his voice.

'Oh right! Crap! We forgot the cheque!' thought Isabella feeling a bit concerned but kept quiet.

"In any case, we should exchange what we learned." Said Phineas. "Mandy, how about you start?"

"Well, we discovered a building called Morbucks Tower. My theory is that perhaps this Gregory Morbucks was the one who has the Butterfly, he's super rich and let's be real, a gemstone like that would fetch a pretty penny…" Mandy sighs a little. "But I lack evidence to prove otherwise."

"Let's be thankful that I managed to find something." Gloated Eddy, he soon cleared his throat. "I came across an antique shop that had a photo of the butterfly!"

"Seriously!?" asked Double D. "Well done."

"But it's JUST a photo, right? Nothing else to go on?" asked Mandy.

"That's the thing. The old shop keep said someone bought it ten years ago, and he mentioned that the buyer had a big orange moustache."

Isabella soon spoke up. "Well, Mandy's theory might be correct, while a conspiracy newspaper isn't exactly accurate, some things do add up, especially with what Eddy said."

Phineas responded. "I'll give you the gist. There's been some sketchy rumours that Mr Morbucks has been losing a lot of business money thanks to that of Matelli Metals, Adam Matelli's company."

"And he's been trying to climb the political ladder." Isabella responded. "He primarily works on selling metals, machines and parts for machines."

"But according to this newspaper." Phineas continued. "Morbucks continuously used the same business tactics and mainly worked with various stocks and food trades, along with cars and car parts. From what we gathered, he was losing finance since he wasn't trying anything new, he wasn't adapting."

"C'mon, get to the good part about how he has the butterfly!" Eddy interjected.

"Eddy! Don't interrupt, this is important!" said Double D.

Phineas continued. "Anyway, it also turns out that Matelli isn't just doing machines or machine parts, but has rather underwent similar trades to Morbucks, forcing him to lose customers. And they've also claimed that Morbucks has been selling stocks and assets to keep his company standing, but he's falling fast."

"And… we found this nugget!" Isabella turned to the page they saw the photo on and shown it to the others.

"Bingo!" Mandy responded.

"And with a big orange moustache to boot!" said Eddy.

"It looks like a Black-Veined White Butterfly." Said Double D. "This was first listed as a British species in 1667, but this large butterfly became extinct in the British Isles around 1925 with its last remaining stronghold in the south-east of England. It was always considered a rarity in the British Isles but on the continent, it is often very common. The female is known to rub her wings together and loses many of her scales by doing so, resulting in an almost-transparent look when compared with the white wings of the male. The reason behind this unusual behaviour is not known."

"Are you a walking Wikipedia?" asked Dib raising an eyebrow.

Mandy interrupted "Either way, we'll need to infiltrate Morbucks Tower. Assuming he still has it."

"Even if he doesn't, we can still hack into his computers and find out who he sold it to." Said Dib.

"I feel bad for breaking into a building, but we have to do it before anyone else does." Said Isabella.

"Either way, we should only have a few of us go in." said Double D. "Three at most."

Isabella tried to think of a way to get in without being detected, but as she did, she recalled that during their talk with Billy on the train, they mentioned the Ninja Suits Phineas and Ferb made, she turns to Phineas. "Hey, do you remember those Ninja suits you made? The ones that make you hide from anyone not wearing them?"

"Yeah, they're still at home, but they don't fit anymore."

"Hide from anyone? Can you recreate them?" asked Dib.

"I think I can, problem is that Ferb and I make all our machines together, without him, I can only do half as good."

"Well, you're gonna have to try without him, we're low on options." Mandy then turned to Dib. "Can you hack into his computers remotely?"

"No, not without my own computers at home. Even then I'm not very good at it."

"Either way, we should book a hotel for the night so we can have a base of operations." Said Trixie. "I can pay for everything we need."

"Good." Mandy speaks up again. "Ok, get some supplies, get whatever you need for these Ninja Suits you mentioned, and we'll infiltrate the Morbucks Tower tonight. Can you get them done by then?"

Phineas shrugged. "If I can remember how, I did them before, I might be able to make at least one, but if I begin immediately."

"Alright, let's find a hotel, find the right stores and let's get to work."

Everyone agreed and began to move back into the city. As Phineas and Isabella walked, Isabella was starting to feel a bit proud of herself, in addition to finding a Jewelled Butterfly in Turkey, her guess on the conspiracy newspaper turned out to be perfect, though she froze again when faced with danger, she can only hope that it never happens again.

As she walked more, she suddenly got that feeling of being watched again, she looked behind her and found no one looking directly at her, but could still feel that feeling, she thought it was the Amoeba Boys at first, but they're gone now, so she wondered who it is now. She tried to ignore it and just focus on the mission.

To be continued

There was no way I was gonna do a Townsville chapter without the gang tangling with one of the Villains from Powerpuff Girls.

And I also apologise if Isabella being helpless rubs people the wrong way, the idea is that they're going through a lot more dangerous stuff, so their resolves are being tested, plus with some story ideas I have in mind, I kinda need to write it this way, I'll at least try to make it more believable.

Either way, sorry for this chapter taking so long, but I hope you enjoyed it.